


Inverted Bones (Undertale AU)

by ClassySansy



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Inverted Bones, Angst and Feels, F/F, F/M, Gen, Identity Swap, Inverted Bones, Inverted fates, M/M, Multi, Other, Papyrus (Undertale) Remembers Resets, Personality Swap, Reset Angst (Undertale), Undertale Saves and Resets, swapped fates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-27
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-03-18 09:27:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29731791
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClassySansy/pseuds/ClassySansy
Summary: Unlike the Inverted Fate AU, Inverted Bones only swaps the fates of Sans and Papyrus.Papyrus once knew the very smart Dr.W.D.Gaster, but that was years ago, before the Core incident. After the scientist fell into the powerful technology, Papyrus was left with a damaged eye and the burden of being the only one who could remember Gaster and the Resets that came soon after.This story is about how Papyrus deals with this stress, along with him meeting a human.Stay tuned to see the drastic changes of the skelebros’ personalities and how the whole situation plays out.
Relationships: Papyrus & Toriel (Undertale), Papyrus/Toriel (Undertale)
Kudos: 4





	Inverted Bones (Undertale AU)

It was another cold day in Snowdin. The skeleton brothers, Sans and Papyrus, were doing their daily sentry duties. Sans was patrolling the long stretch between the start of Snowdin and the end of it, while Papyrus was silently sitting at his sentry station, near the Ruins’ doors.

To be honest, Papyrus didn’t fully hate his job. It kept him alert and thinking, with the chance that a human might show up at some point. He usually brought crossword puzzles and rubix cubes to help his mind keep busy when nothing special was happening.

One thing, however, did bother him…the resets. There were times when he would be walking along a snowy clearing on his way home from work, and then he was suddenly back at his station with no explanation as to how he got there. He quickly learned that not only did he change locations, but he had also traveled back in time somehow. It took him awhile to get used to, but he eventually did. He also soon figured out that nobody but him could remember the resets.

He had theories as to how these ‘resets’ were happening, but he wasn’t totally sure. He thought that someone in the Underground was doing it, like a monster who had a magical power to be able to turn back time. He didn’t know exactly who, but he also had a theory on that as well.

There were multiple times before a reset when he would see a yellow flower with a mischievous, grinning face disappear under the ground. They were just glimpses…split second sightings, but the flower seemed pretty suspicious to him. He had never talked to the plant, but there was one moment when it had winked at him before submerging itself under the snow. The wink was what really made him think the weed had been making the resets happen.

Papyrus shifted in his seat, setting the puzzle cube down. It seemed like a casual day in Snowdin; no resets, no flower, nothing out of the ordinary. Just peace and quiet.

He frowned to himself, staring down at his station’s wooden counter. Perhaps he would go to visit the nice old woman behind the Ruins’ doors again. She was always quite delighted to talk to him. She loved discussing crossword answers and his brother’s insufferable puns.

He nodded and stood up, adjusting his crimson varsity jacket as he did so. A string was hanging from the embroidered orange ‘P’ that was shown proudly on the piece of clothing. He sighed and yanked the string off before turning on his heel and heading along the outskirts of Snowdin forest, in the direction of the Ruins.

After a few moments, he arrived to the large purple doors and prepared to knock, but something stopped him cold: the sound of a young woman’s laughter. The giggle didn’t sound familiar at all, and he could also hear footsteps nearing the doors.

In a knee-jerk reaction, he turned and rushed into the forest, stopping and peeking out from behind a tree shortly.

The Ruins’ doors soon opened, and a human…that was a human, right?…exited them. The human seemed to be a young woman, just as the voice had communicated. She had short brown hair and a pink and purple striped sweater…she was also quite pretty. She turned to close the doors before turning again to walk into the long stretch before Papyrus’ station.

Papyrus eyed the new stranger, unsure of himself. He had always wanted to meet a human…not as much as Sans did, but he did nonetheless. After a few seconds, he grit his teeth and smiled. This would be the perfect opportunity to capture the human and give her to Sans. That way, Sans could present her to Undyne and they could use the human’s Soul to shatter the barrier that kept all monsters deep within the Underground.

He took a deep breath and stepped out from behind the tree, letting out a loud, “Nyeh heh heh!”

The human almost jumped, startled, before shifting her gaze to the tall skeleton. Her eyes widened and she seemed to meekly shrink into herself. She stayed silent.

“Greetings!” Papyrus began confidently, extending his hand. “It’s always nice to meet a new friend! You are a human, correct?”

“…yes?” she mumbled, accepting his hand before he gave hers a firm shake. She quickly withdrew her grasp and took a step back, basically hiding behind her brunette bangs.

“Terrific! I am Papyrus! Some may even call me great at times.” He put his skeletal hands on his hip bones. “And you are..?”

“Oh, uh…my name is Frisk.” Her mouth showed neither a smirk or frown. “Nice to meet you.”

“Of course! And it is nice to meet you, too!” Papyrus looked past her, eyeing where his station was in the distance, before glancing back at her. “I’m sure you are nervous and confused. Would you like me to bring you to town?”

“Town?” she gasped. “There’s a town down here?”

“Where else would we monsters live?” He laughed softly. “Come with me, I’ll lead you to the Inn.” And with that, he grabbed her hand again and started to lead her to where his station was.

After a short minute, the two arrived to the clearing he was assigned to patrol.

Papyrus let go of her and went over to his sentry shack, retrieving his cell phone from behind the counter and stuffing it in his pocket. He turned on his heel and began away from the clearing, motioning for Frisk to follow.

Almost as soon as he had done that, a crackle of energy was heard and Sans appeared in front of them in a blue flash.

The shorter skeleton grinned, looking her over. He then shifted his gaze to Papyrus. “Heya, bro. You weren’t gonna tell me you captured a human?”

“I was actually just bringing her your way, brother!” Papyrus’ smile faded slightly, and he rolled his eyes. “You never let me surprise you, using your annoying shortcuts to spy on me all the time!”

“What?” Sans chuckled. “Nah, I’d never do that. What kind of brother would I be if I did?” He raised a brow and looked to Frisk once more. “And, uh…who are you, kid?”

“Her name is Frisk!” Papyrus answered for her, folding his arms. “Frisk, this is my brother…Sans. Ignore his irritating lack of manners.”

“Sans?” Frisk’s expression softened, and she actually managed a small smirk. “What a pretty name.” She looked Sans in the eyes, noticing his curious expression…it almost seemed like he was examining her.

“Thanks, I got it from my parents.” Sans winked, snickering. “And your name’s Frisk? Nice to meet ya, bucko.”

Papyrus mumbled under his breath in annoyance at his brother’s joke. “Yes, well…now that we have formalities out of the way…” He dismissively gestured at Sans. “We were just going to town, and we would like to continue.”

“Don’t let me get in your way.” Sans shrugged. “Although…I’ll come with. I’m sure Undyne would love for me to introduce Frisk to her.”

Papyrus saw no reason as to why he couldn’t…after all, he was going to deliver Frisk to him, anyway. “I’ll allow it.” He nodded and began walking again, the other two following close behind.

“So…you two are skeletons?” Frisk questioned, looking between the two monsters in awe. “I shouldn’t be surprised…Toriel was a goat.” She giggled.

“Toriel?” Sans furrowed his brows, glancing at his brother in a silent question.

“Ah, yes! Toriel!” Papyrus cackled good-naturedly. “I see you have met the old lady in the Ruins. I suppose she was nice to you, human?”

“Very!” Frisk nodded quickly. “She gave me butterscotch-cinnamon pie and advice on how to navigate through the Underground. I’m just glad she didn’t bake the snail pie she had told me about.” She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“Pfft. It’s pretty crappy I wasn’t there to convince the lady to give you the snail pie.” Sans chuckled, amused.

Papyrus gave him a disapproving look, shaking his head in disappointment.

“What? She coulda liked it…ya never know.” Sans paused in thought. “I’ve been wanting to meet a human for awhile. I never thought today would be the day I did.” He eyed her as they walked. “It doesn’t look like you have fur. Weird. How do you keep warm, pal?”

“Fur?” Frisk finally laughed. “Of course I don’t have fur. Only animals have-“ she stopped short. “I mean…I guess some monsters have fur, too. I, uh…I keep warm with clothes and blankets.”

“I wouldn’t know. I’m a skeleton.” Sans shrugged again. “No skin, yanno? Can’t feel the cold one bit, although I can feel pain. Kinda strange if ya think about it.”

“Sans! This is a highly inappropriate subject for small talk.” Papyrus huffed, increasing his pace. “I apologize again for his lack of manners, human. He is actually quite thrilled to see you, even if he doesn’t act like it.”

“In all seriousness, he’s right. I’m almost busting at the seams, if ya couldn’t already tell.” Sans glanced forward again, letting out a breath.

“Then act like it, brother!” Papyrus was close to scowling at this point.

“Yeah, sure, whatever you say,” Sans replied casually, shifting his gaze back to Frisk. “I, uh…I’m sorry if I don’t seem excited, kid. It’s just how I roll. My personality, ya know?”

“It’s totally fine!” Frisk responded cheerfully. “You both seem pretty cool, so far. I’ve never met skeletons before, so this is a big first for me.”

“Eyyy, it’s a big first for us, too. Ain’t that right, bro?” Sans said with a bit more excitement in his voice than before.

“Of course!” Papyrus nodded, not being entirely truthful. He in fact had met a human, before…the circumstances in which Sans hadn’t met the human were simply too grim to mention, however. Sans had no idea that Papyrus had met one in the past.

“See? Even Paps says so.” Sans awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. “And, uh…sorry it’s such a long walk to town. I’d have us take a shortcut, but I’d be ‘Bone tired’ afterwards…”

“Shortcut…meaning teleport, right?” Frisk questioned, her smile widening at the thought. She was still getting used to monster powers.

“Bingo! Give the kid a prize. You sure catch on quick, buddo.” Sans grinned, amused again. “Yeah, shortcut means teleport here, and shortcuts really drain the go-get-em’ness from me. Takes lots of energy, especially when I’m taking more than one person. Otherwise, we’d be to town by now.”

“Oh,” Frisk mumbled. “That’s really awesome! Can you show me your teleport, sometime?” she begged, her eyes wide.

“Maybe when we’re halfway there. Half of the journey wouldn’t be too bad for me to do,” Sans answered.

“Ah, yes!” Papyrus abruptly exclaimed as they approached a random chest. “This, human, is a chest. If you have anything with you that you don’t want to carry, you can put it here. You’ll be able to find your belongings in the other chests along the way.”

“Really?” Frisk’s mouth shaped an ‘o’ in surprise. “So the chests down here can teleport items?”

“That’s correct!” Papyrus nodded in confirmation. “Do you have anything to drop off?”

“No, I don’t have anything with me but myself and my clothes,” Frisk explained, glancing at him.

“I see. Then we shall continue on!” And with that, the trio began to walk again.

“Thank you for helping me to town,” Frisk said, blushing shyly. “It seems like a maze down here.”

  
((I will update this as soon as I can!!! 😊


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